Blackout. Really?

Well friends. Chile just doesn’t stop with the surprises. I felt a small temblor (tremor) about five minutes ago. Now I’m sitting in complete darkness. All the power and internet is out all around us. This could have been caused by the temblor, but there could have been a car accident or something of the sort. But really. No power? This trip is nothing but an adventure!

Speaking of adventures, I had my orientation this weekend! I woke up early Friday, just thinking about it makes me grimace. We (there were 11 of us who were already in Vina), left at 7:30 on our way back to Santiago to pick up the group flight before heading to Olmue for orientation. We arrived around 10 just as their flight was getting in. The international terminal at the Santiago airport was still down, so we were forced to wait. And wait. And wait. So during our waiting we all took the opportunity to get to know each other a little better. We decided there was no better way than over a nice cold beer! As we finished our drinks good news arrived. Our peeps had landed and we were on our way to Olmue.

Olmue is this small town in central Chile, completely surrounded by the most beautiful hills and mountains. We were taken to this nice hotel (temblor right now) and thus began a wonderful weekend of fun and games. My group is great, everybody was really nice, very chill. Overall a laid back group of individuals. We all got along so well, and I’m very eager to get to know all of them even better as this semester goes on.


Besides getting our faces stuffed during our multiple course meals, besides laying out by the pool, besides having a few well deserved drinks, we actually did spend some time learning about what to expect during our stay here. We talked briefly about some Chilean history, specifically the histories of the multiple schools we will be studying at. Appropriately enough we began the weekend talking about earthquake and tsunami safety precautions, which, as you all know, was just a day late. Following that we spent time throughout the weekend learning about classes, the ridiculous type of Spanish spoken here in Chile, and we were taught how not to get robbed. In my opinion, that’s a good skill to have.

Did I mention how great everyone is in my program?

University here in Chile is so very different from back home. Students choose their career path before even entering into school. From there a strict educational path is laid out before them, and they must take certain classes each semester until they graduate, which on average, takes at least five years. Students with a particular major take ALL of their classes with the same people until their time at university is finished. That sounds very challenging to me. I couldn’t imagine 5 years of my life with the same people EVERY SINGLE DAY. Reminds of the old days, back in elementary school. ☺ With that in mind, let me explain to you how my class registration will look.

We do what is called a pre-registration. We have a list of courses that are available to us, and from those we choose what we like, or what we might be interested in. With this class list in my mind, we go to each class, sitting in, trying to get a feel for the professor, the subject matter, etc. Say I’ve decided to pre-register for 6 classes. I go to each, weighing the pros and cons. I decide that I wasn’t a fan of my marine biology class, so I drop it. The Spanish lit class looks kind of tough, I’ll drop that too. You can add and drop classes for about a month until you’ve whittled your classes down to your final 16 credits. Those are the classes that will count. Got it?? (Here there is slang term called Kachai. It’s like, do you understand, do you get it? KACHAI?! Haha, I sure hope so)

That whole process begins tomorrow, which is equally exciting as it is scary! But I’m sure I’ll find some really fun and interesting courses. It doesn’t hurt that I can plan my schedule so that I have no class on Fridays. I’m a fan of the three day weekend. I noticed that most classes only meet once or twice a week. Also, you can take classes until like 11 at night! Isn’t that kind of crazy! So I’m excited to finally immerse with the Chilean culture and try my best to make some new Chilean friends!

It’s been about half an hour with no light. Hopefully this gets resolved soon! I don’t really mind right now, I had a LONG weekend. So much fun! So with no light or internet and the house kind of a quiet, I believe I will retire to my wonderful cama. It’s quite comfortable if you were wondering.

Hasta luego, ojala que podemos charlar pronto!

Ciao!